


Witchstock

by trashyeggroll



Category: Charmed (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Music Festival, F/F, F/F/F, Jamelko, Listen they're at a music festival so there's lots of that, Minor Relationships Galvin/Macy and Lucy/Maggie, No Charmed lore, OT3, OT3 will set us free, Recreational Drug Use, Their Friends Know About Magic, read the tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2019-12-26 21:51:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18290936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashyeggroll/pseuds/trashyeggroll
Summary: There's a vampire on the loose at P3, Hilltowne's closest thing to a real music festival, and the Vera-Vaughn crew need to catch it before a) their weekend is ruined and/or b) the humans figure out what's happening.Meanwhile, Mel Vera had hoped to have a good time and maybe get to know fellow university student Jada Shields better... only to have her ex, Niko Hamada, somehow make the first move.





	1. take my mellow

**Author's Note:**

> If OT3 and/or the sexual activities of three consenting adult women is not your jam, this fic just isn't going to be for you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> P3, Day 01: Mel's no good, awful, "but ended okay" day.

Mel Vera pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes to take a deep, calming breath. A pinpoint headache took shape near her right eyebrow, and its name was Maggie Vera. “We’re at a four-day camping music fest… and you forgot our _tent?”_

“You can keep repeating it in different ways, and it won’t change my answer,” snapped her younger sister with arms crossed. “I’m _sorry.”_

The oldest sister, Macy Vaughn, snorted from nearby. “Well, you’re not staying with Galvin and me.”

“Like I would want to,” sighed Mel as she fruitlessly pawed through their pile of supplies again. Marisol had dropped them off at the grounds more than an hour ago, and there was no way they could ask her to make the full four-hour round trip twice because they’d been stupid enough to forget their _tent_ at home. The tent Maggie had assured them, in increasingly irritated tones, had been at the bottom of the trunk.

Galvin just shifted on his feet nervously, his own bagged tent slung over his back. “I mean, it’d be okay with me if—“

“No,” chirped Macy with a tight smile that begged no further argument.

Not even one day into P3, the closest big time music festival to Hilltowne, and Me was already thoroughly _done_ with her sisters. Set on a wide, flat area of grassland surrounded on all sides by forest and hills, the event usually attracted around twenty thousand people and featured a fairly respectable lineup. The acts would perform across three separate stages, with a sort of common area with vendors and games between them, and then the camping area closing off the circle and extending for quite a distance away from the stages. And you kind of _needed_ a tent, unless you were one of the rich kids staying in the dozen or so houses available for the weekend. They were not.

“I’ll stay with Lucy, and you stay with Harry and Jada,” Maggie was suggesting glumly.

Harry. Whitelighter in training, soft white boy, Macy’s ex, and general pain in Mel’s ass when it came to fun things like blowing stuff up or freezing her entire lecture hall to cheat off other people’s exams _(real word survival skills,_ she’d argued). The fact that he had paired up with Jada in the pre-planned sleeping arrangement was even more annoying. Half-whitelighter, half-witch, Jada Shields had transferred to Hilltowne U between semesters and quickly found her way into the company of her fellow magical undergrads.

Unconfirmed, but Mel felt like she and Jada had been casually circling each other for some time, and she’d hoped to have some kind of opportunity to test that theory over the next few days… and Harry’s presence in her tent would certainly damper Mel’s mood, if it came to that. The time witch cleared her throat, realizing her sisters were still looking at her expectantly. “Whatever, let’s just find them.”

They trekked through the wilds of fest-goers, avoiding spilled beers and increasingly irritating propositions to join men in their tents, but made it to where their friends were setting up without maiming anyone.

“Oh, thank God,” groaned Maggie, throwing down her duffel bag and insulated growler.

“You made it!” Lucy squealed as she pulled Maggie into a hug, squeezing and shaking them both back and forth for a few seconds. She was wearing a white tank top with coral high waisted shorts, her blonde hair pulled up into a loose ponytail. Mel thought she held onto her little sister for a couple beats longer than was strictly necessary, but she was also visibly at least one blunt into her vacation.

“Yeah, but… our tent didn’t.” Maggie put her own bag on the ground and wiggled her fingers in greeting at Harry, who was stepping out of his tent with Jada right behind him.

“Hey guys. Was getting worried there for a minute,” drawled the whitelighter-witch, smiling from behind mirrored sunglasses.

Somehow, not being able to see them made Mel’s brain throw out endless images of the striking green of Jada’s eyes, and she cleared her throat as Maggie, Galvin, and Macy returned the greeting like functional humans. Jada’s braids were arranged on top of her head, up and away from her face, a look which never failed to accentuate her neck and strong jawline, and she wore a black tank under denim overall shorts.

Comfortingly, Harry appeared even more uncomfortable than she felt, adjusting his glasses constantly as he obviously tried not to look at Macy, who was helping Galvin get their tent out of the bag.

“You can absolutely stay in mine,” Lucy was saying to Maggie, one arm slung over the youngest sister’s narrow shoulders. “It’ll be a little snug, but what’s a little cuddling between friends, yeah?”

“Oh, you need a place too, Mel? Ours is pretty big. Three of us could fit fine.” Jada gestured behind her to the family-sized, blue and white tent, which looked quite solid next to the tiny, podlike thing Lucy had brought.

Unsure if Jada knew just how that idea made her heart race, Mel managed a smile at the whitelighter-witch, hoping it wasn’t as nervous as she suspected it could be. “Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Hope I don’t cramp your style or anything, ha.”

“Doubtful I’d even try to bring a lady home with a white boy in the next sleeping bag,” Jada joked right back. Her subsequent smirk made heat spread up Mel’s neck, having nothing to do with the summer sun. It faded when she thought too hard about what that meant for _her_ chance to maybe be the lady brought home. _Damn it, Harry._

“Maggie and I going to get corn dogs!” Lucy announced suddenly. “See you guys at Jhene Aiko! Stage 1!”

 _“Please_ don’t _take_ anything until we’re all back together!” shouted Macy as the blonde dragged their baby sister into the crowd.

By the time evening was falling over the boisterous campgrounds, Galvin and Harry just about had the last tent ready to go. Then, what should have been the second red flag that this trip was not going to go to plan made itself known in the form of a high-pitched scream from a few tents down. Jada immediately pivoted to run towards the noise, and Mel could have sworn Jada _almost_ reached to grab her hand before taking off—but maybe just wishful thinking. The time witch followed close behind, trying to decide how many people she could freeze simultaneously if it came down to it. Twenty thousand certainly seemed like a stretch.

Once they’d shouldered their way close enough to see what was happening, Mel spotted a shirtless bro lying on the ground, his head in the lap of a young woman, presumably his girlfriend if the matching backwards baseball caps and sunglasses were any indication.

Jada knelt next to them and took off her sunglasses. Her voice was the cool calm of first responders,drawing the distraught young woman’s focus to her. “Hi, I’m Jada. Are you okay? What happened?”

“I don’t know, he was making out with this girl, right behind me, but then I turned. She just ran away, and he collapsed. Cheating bastard. But I don’t want him to die.”

The whitelighter-witch felt for his pulse, and then gave his cheek a couple firm slaps. He coughed and opened his eyes, looking a pale, but alert. “You’re okay, buddy. Did you guys take anything?”

“No!”

Jada gave the woman a wan smile. “Let me guess—acid?”

After a petulantly long pause, the blonde nodded.

“He’ll be fine. Drink some water and eat something, my guy.”

When Jada stood, she took Mel by the elbow and leaned close, “He’s got a vamp bite on his shoulder.”

Despite the miniature win of a little hand contact and the potentially dangerous revelation of a lurking vampire, Mel’s lizard brain beat out all reason, and her first thought was: _I’m never getting laid this weekend._

 

* * *

 

 _Let loose_ , they said. _It’s an experience!_

After Niko Hamada’s last breakup and the stress of the spring semester, getting out of town and getting absolutely lit sounded pretty damn good. Maybe even get laid. Alas, she’d definitely forgotten about all the _other_ lit and messy people who’d be at P3, too. So there she was, sweating even after sundown, pressed into a seemingly endless herd of equally sweaty, high strangers at every turn while trying to enjoy the Healy show. Besides the epic volume of the set itself, there was an endless roar of shouts, bellowing bros and cheering women, plus the people screaming at them to shut up in an endless, hellish loop.

The noise and smells and constant jostling—it was excruciating for Niko’s particular flavor of anxiety, and despite her pre-festival resolve to stick to alcohol and weed, when Trip had offered her a handful of magic mushrooms, she hadn’t hesitated, even if she had to drink an entire can of Red Bull to get rid of the taste.

Once the shrooms set in, she began to feel better, managing to actually enjoy the tail end of the set, their first show of the evening. By the time she was following Trip back to the central commerce area, her eyes felt like they were blinking sideways, and her skin tingled with a pleasant, swirling warmth from the end of each strand of hair down to her toes. The colors of the food trucks’ lights and menus were so deeply rich that Trip briefly lost track of her when she stopped to stare, nearly in tears and occasionally pressing her palm to a menu, awestruck. Later, Niko honestly couldn’t recall how she ended up sitting at one of the plastic picnic tables with a vividly amber beer in front of her, but she thanked her buddy nonetheless.

“You’re a good friend,” she informed him as he sat down with two plates of food—tacos and a funnel cake.

“I know,” he replied, grinning. For the entirety of their bromance, from living on the same floor of the dorm as undergraduate freshman to this, their first year of law school, Trip had always been better at holding his liquor and other mind altering substances than she.

 _“Such_ a food friend,” she reiterated, nostalgic. “Like, if there was a Dependable Straight Buddy Award, you would get it. Also, you know your name is pretty ironic right now?”

Already halfway done with his first taco, Trip chuckled and wiped lettuce from around his mouth. “You just don’t go hard often enough. All the better though, it’s gonna be a much cheaper weekend for you that way.”

Niko hummed happily and sipped her beer, eyes raking over the throngs of people. So many crop tops. Chokers were back. High waisted shorts. Visual poetry. A few of the women held her gaze longer than others, and Niko very quickly felt ten times better about the weekend than she had an hour ago.

“Are we finally getting over The Ex this weekend?” teased Trip, waving a hand in front her.

With a slow blink, Niko turned back to the table and shrugged. “I thought we agreed I would be keeping all of those emotions securely bottled and repressed for the duration of the fest?”

Trip just shook his head at her, tearing into his funnel cake. He himself kept making eyes at a brunette at the next table, and the stranger did little to hide her reciprocation of the interest, smiling at him over her red Solo cup. Maybe it was the shrooms, but it looked to Niko like someone had doused the woman in gold glitter. The law student vaguely thought she heard her introduce herself to Trip as Chloe.

Niko was just about finished with her beer, when someone waved a tanned hand in her periphery. As her eyes turned up, she took in blue denim overalls, cut off above the knee, biceps filling out a black shirt, gorgeous long braids, and then she was looking up into the brightest green eyes she’d ever seen.

“Hi,” greeted the woman, her smile a lopsided, cocky thing. “Do you mind if my friend and I join you? Just looking for a place to sit.”

Curious, Niko leaned to one side, looking behind the stranger, and her brow furrowed when she didn’t see anyone else facing them. “A real friend?”

“No, an imaginary one.” The stranger chuckled, but Niko didn’t detect any judgment in her tone. “She’ll be here in a minute. Getting bao.”

“Sorry, my friend pret-ty gone right now,” came Trip’s voice. “We were just about to head out to Jhene. She’s like half the reason Niko even agreed to come here.”

“Niko?” Tensing, Jada said the name like she was testing how it felt in her mouth, or as if she recognized it… but then she shrugged and sat down. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jada.”

“Trip.” He shook hands with her before standing up, gathering their trash from the table. “Nice to meet you, too.”

Niko felt him tug her to her feet, and she had a moment’s clarity to feel somewhat bashful. She knew she was smiling down at this nice, strikingly attractive Jada woman like an idiot, but hey... _Let loose,_ they said.

Shrugging off Trip’s fingers, she stretched out her own to lightly brush along the outside of Jada’s t-shirt sleeve, where the enticing muscles there curved in before reaching her shoulder. “Don’t be a stranger. Come say hi if you see me again.”

Jada raised her eyebrows in surprise, but didn’t move her arm away, and then her smirk morphed into something more... knowing. “Have a happy trip, Niko. Talk to you later.”

Following Trip’s back again, Niko couldn’t help but grin as they walked away. _There, Hamada. You’re back in the game._

 

* * *

 

“Your ex just hit on me.”

Mel almost choked on a mouthful of barbeque pork at the words, which Jada delivered as casually as a weather update. “Excuse me? _Niko?”_

“Tall _hapa_ number with great eyebrows named Niko? Then yes.”

“Niko hit on you?”

“Yep. Pretty aggressively, if I do say so myself.”

While Maggie had been more than happy to spill details about Niko and Mel’s relationship over a bottle of cheap wine, Jada had only ever seen the occasional photo of the legendary woman in Facebook Memories posted by members of the friend group, usually wedged between two of the sisters at some kind of celebration or holiday.

According to the sister gossip lore, Niko had gone away for a study abroad program in Japan about four months ago, and she and Mel had agreed to break up prior to departure. At the time, there had been a fairly realistic chance that Niko wouldn’t come back, depending on how much she liked it there. Jada could see the logic in a preemptive end, kind of like choosing to cancel the a beloved TV show before it ran endlessly into mediocrity. But, the two storied sweethearts hadn’t spoken since Niko returned stateside a few months earlier, which Jada found somewhat mystifying.

“So that means… Niko is _here.”_

“Still correct.”

“Cool. That’s cool. It’s a big festival. She’s her own person. It’s cool.”

Jada watched Mel’s face with genuine curiosity, trying to get a read on how she felt about that. Truth be told, the middle Vera sister had caught her eye the moment they met, in the quad. Maggie had picked up on her magic while sharing a class—Jada was taking a freshman course they hadn’t offered at her previous school, but was necessary for a biochemistry degree at Hilltowne U. The empath confronted her about her true identity after class a couple weeks later, and then introduced her to the rest of the merry band of secretly magical students. Mel, getting a double major in English and Women’s and Gender Studies, was a brilliant writer and all-around genuine person with a smile that made her usually surly demeanor crack.

The whitelighter-witch had _hoped_ to maybe explore the possibilities with Mel in earnest this weekend, but between the vampire and the unexpected reappearance of The Ex… Maybe not.

“Maggie’s texting me. We better get over to Jhene. Keep an eye out for our unfriendly visitor. The magic one.”

 _Oh._ Should she tell Mel about Niko going to… _Nah._ It was going to be a huge show anyway. Instead, Jada just nodded and followed the shorter woman towards the general admission gate, resisting the urge to take her hand, even under the guise of staying together in the thickening crowd. They found the rest of their crew staking out a respectable spot about fifty feet back from the stage, and by then, Jhene had already started her set.

“This is perfect!” Mel yelled over the music and crowd, plush lips near her ear. “I’m so glad we came this year!”

“Me too!” Jada tried to ignore the heat creeping into her cheeks at the feel of Mel’s breath so close. Spurred by the adrenaline, she turned her head halfway to the time witch and added, “I was hoping… to spend some time with you this weekend.”

Mel tilted her head back to look her in the eye, jaw a little slack before she seemed to come back to herself as she hazily replied, “Good. Me, too.”

Lucy interrupted to pass over a lit joint as the snares tapped in time with Jada’s pulse, fluttering and unsure how to handle something going so right for once. She filled her lungs and let the smoke go as Mel took her own draw, their feet shuffling closer together.

“ _There's more where that came from, that's all I'm sayin’. It's me and you and we makin' arrangements.”_

They all got to the business of enjoying the show then, as night completed its fall over the sky and the pastel blue and purple lights from the stage illuminated thousands of faces in a dreamy glow, the effect reinforced by the occasional cloud of vape and/or weed smoke that lifted into the air from alternating sections of the audience. Having spent the last few weeks studying almost every waking hour for a Macromolecular Biology exam, Jada deeply appreciated the hedonism of the new scenery, artificially created though it may be (and $250 a pop for the four day passes).

Distracted as she was by the nearly overwhelming experience, growing ever more buzzed as joints and mini bottles of wine made the rounds, Jada didn’t (at first) notice how the press of people brought her ever incrementally closer to Mel. The time witch’s thick, shining black hair smelled like sweat and coconut, and Jada’s hands twitched inches from the enticing swell of her hip. With another swell of movement from the crowd around them, she found her chest pressed firmly against Mel’s back, chin barely hanging over the shorter woman’s shoulder. She licked her lips and asked close to Mel’s ear, “Is this okay?”

_“Hope you are who you are sayin’...”_

Mel twisted her neck around to meet her gaze. “That’s a yes from me.”

Jada grinned and brought her hands to Mel’s waist. They were definitely close enough to kiss. The promise was there. _And Mel’s lips? Christ._ Just being this close to them, imagining running her tongue along soft flesh…

Except, that would have been way too easy, and she should have known, because nobody had ever called Jada Shields “lucky.” She’d no sooner decided to go for it when Maggie suddenly appeared next to them, grabbing Mel’s arm with no sense of having interrupted a Moment.

“Maggie, what the fuck?” protested Mel, wrenching her arm away.

“Look at this,” she was saying, holding up her phone to Instagram. “The vampire.”

Trying not to be irritated, Jada leaned around Mel to look at the giant iPhone 8 Plus screen. Maggie had pulled up an apparently random photo from the festival tag, and it took her a minute, but eventually the whitelighter-witch spotted the problem. The picture showed a group of white women closer to the stage, Jhene obviously in the background, and behind them, just in the very tip-top corner, was the mutated face of a vampire, lit by a happenstance flash from the show. You might just think it was a blurry photo effect if you didn’t know what you were looking for. It wasn’t hard to tell, though, that the creature was looking at the women with particular interest.

“Fuck,” sighed Mel, looking towards the stage. She held up the phone for reference, trying to decide where the women might be standing relative to them. “Should we try to find them?”

Even though she didn’t want to, Jada admitted, “The vamp didn’t kill the last one, but they got interrupted. They could go for broke this time.”

“Where’s Macy?”

Maggie made a face and jerked a thumb over her shoulder, where Macy and Galvin were making out, living their best lives. “She told me she’d throw me all the way home if I didn’t leave them alone.”

“Set’s almost done. You and Maggie go one way, I’ll go the other with Harry, okay?”

As they split up to search, Jada filling in her fellow whitelighter as they went, some of the crowd was leaving, presumably to get spots at the next round of shows. That made it easier to move, until they got to the thick band of dedicated fans just ahead of where the women might be standing.

Consequently, Jada was literally sliding across Niko’s back before the taller woman turned, and they registered the other at the same time.

“Niko,” she greeted. “We meet again… and so soon.” She was _definitely_ suspicious of that, not of Niko, but there were no coincidences in magic. Not if you were the type of whitelighter-witch that liked staying alive.

“This show has been just—wow.” Niko gave a sort of swooping arm movement, and Jada nodded as if that made sense. The tall woman, aglow in cool light, was shifting her hips and shoulders with the beat, mostly just swaying. Though her arms and chest rippled with the muscles of someone who worked out regularly, Niko had a perfect layer of softness around Jada’s favorite places, the curve of her waist and thighs, and it was all together _very_ distracting when she needed to be on the hunt for a vampire.

Clearing her throat to get ahold of herself, Jada glanced around, wondering where Harry had gone off to; she could have sworn he’d been right behind her. “You haven’t seen someone wearing like a super ugly mask or something along those lines?”

“Are you talking about the fest gremlin?” Niko’s beefy bro buddy leaned into the conversation, away from a chipper-looking brunette he’d been busily kissing moments earlier.

“What’s a fest gremlin?”

“There’s some chick running around with a wicked mask, and she keeps photobombing,” he explained, nodding solemnly at his own words. “Creepy as fuck. Check the hashtag.”

“I will. Thanks.” Jada narrowed her eyes at the brunette. Something about… The stranger smirked and waved at her, glowing gold flecks falling from her hand as she did, and Jada shook her head. _Pixie._ To be fair, this type of thing was _definitely_ a textbook wonderland for pixies. When she turned back to Niko, the taller woman was grinning down at her from under drooping eyelids.

“Are you coming down right now?”

“It’s the best part,” confirmed Niko with a shrug.

Someone behind Jada knocked into her back, and she stumbled straight into the taller woman, whose hands were instantly gripping her arms to help steady her.

“Oh.” Niko’s unfocused eyes dropped to where her fingers were wrapped around Jada’s bicep, and she squeezed the muscle again with a slack-jawed expression. “That is… hm.”

Jada smirked in spite of herself, and maybe she flexed to exaggerate the effect, thrilling in the tiny gasp it drew out of the taller woman. Then guilt creeped in, Mel’s frown flashing through her mind, and she took a half-step back, causing Niko to let go. “I should go.”

“Boo,” huffed the taller woman, teasingly, as she resumed her sway-dancing.

“Are you okay getting ditched, though? What did you take?”

“Shrooms. It’s old hat. I’ll be fine. Hope your friends are better than this guy.” Niko jerked a thumb over her shoulder tow here Trip had resumed his activities with the pixie. _“My_ friend keeps making out with Chloe and ignoring me. It’s aggressively heterosexual. Luckily, I have my own tent…”

The opportunity hung suspended in the air between them, underlaid with Jhene’s last song, one of her personal favorites.

Jada had to admit she was impressed; no one had ever used the word _forthright_ to describe The Ex, and yet she almost found herself taking the implied invite out of pure, selfish curiosity. _Why not?_ There were at least a couple reasons off the top of her head, of course.

_“We’re young, we should just have fun. We should just do whatever we want…”_

Still, Niko had had the whitelighter-witch admittedly off-balance since the moment they met, and that was going to bother her all weekend unless she got to the root of it. Maybe it was something about how the woman seemed to slip effortlessly between a sort of flustered cuteness and serious BDE, almost sentence to sentence. Her lizard brain helpfully suggested, _True vers energy,_ and she physically shook her head to get rid of the thought.

“Listen, my friends are waiting on me right now, so I should go. Not that it isn’t an interesting thought.”

“‘Interesting,’ huh?” Niko’s grin didn’t so much as stutter in the face of the gentle let down. She simply produced a marker from her pocket and gestured to the whitelighter-witch’s arm. “Can I give you my number… in case?”

Jhene was saying her final thank yous and goodbyes, the roar of the remaining crowd swelling, and Jada nodded, offering her forearm. Niko scribbled out the digits, and then gave her a casual salute before she fled into the crowd. _Well. Fuck._

 

* * *

 

#P3FestGremlin had taken over the festival’s attendee-generated social media streams. People thought it was hilarious, like the animals that were sometimes dubbed “lucky” because they ran across a sports field at an (in)opportune moment. Most reasonable folks were writing it off as a prank, and nobody seemed to be connecting the gremlin to the two fest-goers who had mysteriously passed out on the grounds, and then recovered. Mercifully, no one mentioned puncture wounds.

Mel and Maggie hadn’t located the blondes, and the vampire was nowhere to be found. After awhile, they realized Harry and Jada weren’t, either. So once the show was over, the sisters gave up and headed back out of the stage area, sobering up and getting a little cranky. They needed food and water foremost.

Lucy found them eating tacos, and somehow she had acquired a straw cowboy hat. She plopped onto the bench next to Maggie, gushing about the light effects.

“Where did you guys go, anyway?” the blonde eventually asked.

“Looking for the vampire,” answered Mel sullenly. “Have you seen Harry or Jada?”

“Mmm, Harry was talking to some girl, haven’t seen Jada.”

But as if summoned, true to her whitelighter side, Jada appeared at the edge of the table saying, _“Finally._ I thought I was going to have to go all the way back to the tents.”

Mel’s eyes immediately zeroed in to what was clearly a phone number scribbled on Jada’s skin. When she recognized it, the visceral reaction nearly had her coming out of her seat. “Why is Niko’s number on your arm?”

For perhaps the first time since Mel had met her, Jada looked… nervous. She opened and closed her mouth silently for a second (prompting Lucy to let out a delighted noise at the drama), and then said, “She… gave it to me. Ran into her in the crowd.”

Maggie put a hand over Lucy’s mouth as the blonde tried to surge forward in a potential gossip fugue state.

 _Great._ Mel’s emotions flew off in eight different directions, mainly conflicted between _I have no right to be mad_ and _How dare she, both of them._ If anything, she was upset at just how much of a trope it was—the dramatic and complex weave of women loving women. _Stupid fucking vampire._

When she realized they were all waiting for her reaction, Mel cleared her throat and tried to say in her most nonchalant tone, “Good. Cool. Great.”

Apparently it didn’t come off that way, because Jada winced. “Sorry.”

“I don’t see any reason to apologize.” Mel kept her voice even, at least, despite it being a little higher than usual. “Seriously, it’s fine. We’re all adults here.”

Lucy, who had freed herself from Maggie, gleefully added in another jab: “Adults ready to have some next level adult fun.”

“Jenny Lewis!” interrupted the youngest Vera, throwing her hands up. “Last show we wanted to see tonight.”

“I’m going to Quinn with Galvin and Macy,” said Jada, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

And so they split up, Mel joining her sister and friend in the somewhat smaller Stage 2 crowd, which was more concentrated with visibly queer folks than the last one. That was a nice vibe to soak up after the strangeness of her ex aggressively pursuing… who?

What should she call Jada? The new object of her affection? A little rubbing against each other (hot as it may have been) hardly qualified as anything to give a title, and she wasn’t even sure that that endgame was what she wanted. It had been easy to focus on being aghast with Jada, but as Jenny appeared on stage, the bright indie pop from her earlier days floating through the speakers… everything turned to Niko.

Two years of dating ended by 120 days apart. Or more specifically, their fear of what that 120 days would feel like. Not that it had been _fun_ , regardless. Niko not telling Mel about the job until she got it had also been a pain point, but it felt so far away now, a crime with time served. Of course, she had spent the majority of those nights ever since wondering what could have been. How could she not? The burdensome regret had just only recently been lightening in her chest, and now with Niko so close… Was she upset that her ex was hitting on the new object of her affection, or was she upset that her ex was hitting on anyone else at all? And did she want to do anything about that unresolved tension?

Lucy seemed to sense her inner turmoil; the blonde was ninety percent annoying and ten percent completely endearing, and she wielded those pieces of her identity with an expert hand. Disentangling from where she’d had her arms folded over Maggie’s shoulders, Lucy slid over to the older Vera sister and ventured in a sweet tone, “Lady problems, Melanie?”

“Obviously.”

The blonde giggled, her light brown eyes drifting to the side before slowly rolling back to Mel’s again. “Girl, forget them. Drah-ma. Look at all the fine ladies here. It’s 2019, my bitch, and you are _hot.”_

Despite herself, Mel grinned back at the younger woman. She had a point; this crowd even just within her line of sight featured a plethora of more than acceptable options to get her rocks off for one anonymous night.

In the end, Lucy made the decision for her, suddenly yanking a person straight towards Mel like some AmazonPrime for wlw.

“Oh fuck, I’m so sorry about her, she’s—“ Mel’s voice choked off to a wheeze when the stranger looked up at her, expression somewhere between surprised and amused. “...a clever girl.”

Between flashes of light from the stage, she took in the standout details: Tall. Strong jawline. Sweet smile. Excellent arms. Complete stranger. Mel had never claimed to be anything other than a simple woman with simple needs.


	2. get my hopes high, girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> P3, Day 2: Jada's no good, awful, yet somehow still excellent day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to try. some. tropes!!
> 
> Maybe it's because of the long show hiatus we're on, but I've been getting more attached to this universe the more I write it, and I hope you do, too.

Hanging out with Macy and Galvin, “the big kids” of the group, turned out to be the magic fix to pull Jada from her somewhat sour mood that evening. After they’d spent time talking and smoking together at the Quinn XCII show, the trio had retreated to their tents, passing a bottle of Tito’s between themselves and continuing the conversation in quieter tones from camping chairs.

She and Macy had always shared an unspoken understanding, never quite close enough to talk about it directly with one another before this. Jada’s parents had given her up for adoption as a baby, to protect her as a child of a forbidden union, and Macy’s mother had sent her away to live with her father after a Necromancer’s curse, until they’d vanquished her. The separation due to something as outside the norm as magic, curses and ancient taboos, was needless to say a _very_ unique experience. To find that level of camaraderie in another person felt indescribable. Warm, comforting perhaps. It was the salve her evening needed.

And when Galvin and Macy turned in for the night, Jada crawled into her tent to find Harry already asleep, and at least there was no one else in the tent with him. A small pack of young women had taken a liking to Harry’s accent, all but carrying him away into the night, but apparently he’d gotten away unscathed.

If she was being honest, she’d had such a pleasant end to her evening that she’d forgotten about Mel as she dozed in the tent, until the time witch was unzipping the mesh layer of the door, her hands fumbling and eyes bleary. Maggie’s voice slurred a goodnight from nearby, and she heard Lucy saying something before the door to her pod closed.

“Hey,” greeted Jada quietly when Mel peered down at her, obviously trying to determine if she was awake.

“Hey,” returned the witch with a lazy smile. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“S’fine.”

Harry seemed to disagree, even in sleep, because he groaned and rolled farther towards the edge of the tent. Once they were both convinced he wouldn’t wake, Mel moved to her bag and then paused, peeking over her shoulder at Jada. Her brows furrowed with some kind of (likely hazy) conflict, and then she murmured: “I’m… just going to change.”

“Oh, sure. Of course.” The whitelighter-witch turned her shoulders, laying halfway on her stomach and facing away from Mel as she tried not to listen too closely to the rustle of clothing against skin. After a few seconds, she heard Mel’s sleeping bag unzipping, and she shifted onto her back again. _Don’t make it weird, Shields. Don’t make it weird._

Apparently, Mel intended to make that difficult, because the time witch rolled to face her, propping her head on one hand. “Having fun?”

“Yeah. Solid first day.” Jada allowed herself to tilt her head just enough to look at Mel with one eye. “Are you gonna be okay? You drink some water?”

“Mhmm. Thanks for letting me stay here. Way better than that glampod Lucy has.”

Though she knew they were both too far gone (and Harry way too close) for this to go anywhere, Jada still felt a heaviness settle over the air between them, their hands resting on top of their sleeping bags just inches apart. She wanted to talk about and apologize for the situation with Niko, whatever that was or was not, but they weren’t in the right state of mind for that, either.

So instead, she summoned all her willpower and murmured, “Good night, Mel.”

The witch made the tiniest noise of disappointment, maybe just an innocent sigh without the added context of their day, but there was nothing else to be done. Jada did well with absolutes like that. It was only a few more minutes before Jada’s mind melted away to sleep.

When she woke up, it was slow and confusing, the groggy drag of a sleep corrupted by too much vodka and weed. The air was hot, the first reminder that she wasn’t at home, and her back and hips ached where bones dug against hard ground. She was _too hot,_ and as her eyes opened to the ceiling of the tent, she realized it was because there was a _furnace_ sprawled across her chest. Both of their sleeping bags were open, probably thrown off in the night, and Mel had fully migrated into Jada’s space, almost all the way on top of her In a deep, deadweight sleep.

Part of Jada wanted to laugh. She should’ve expected this, really. The other part of her was utterly captivated with the feel of Mel’s cheek pressed to her shoulder, quiet snores puffing against her neck, the softness of the leg thrown over her hips and the fingers resting on her stomach, just under the hem of her shirt. Jada dared shift her shoulders just so she could peer down into the witch’s sleeping face, relaxed and somewhat flushed, and a strange warmth hit her behind the eyes. She shut them to fight it off, swallowing thickly, and was sure her pupils would be lightning blue if she opened them again too soon.

The overall effect was… nice. “I could get used to this” nice. _Too_ nice.

Her slight squirming under those thoughts was enough to draw Mel out of sleep, her muscles tensing before her brown eyes opened to slits. They flickered around her face for a second or two, and then widened as the witch pieced their position together.

“Hi,” greeted Jada—she looked too endearing not to tease, just a little.

Mel jerked away from her, leg arcing almost comically through the air, and for a moment Jada thought the witch had teleported back to the very far edge of the tent, but then realized with some amusement that she’d just been frozen for second or two.

Now giving in to a chuckle, Jada sat up to say, “It’s okay, Mel. Really.”

“You were asleep. I’m _so_ sorry.”

“So were you. It’s fine, really.” Jada sucked in a breath and steeled herself for a gamble on the next words, “It was… I wouldn’t be mad if it happened again.”

They eyed each other for a long moment, the dull roar of the festival outside filling the empty spaces of the tent, and then Mel pulled a bottom lip between her teeth before muttering something that sounded like _“fuck it.”_

And then maybe Mel froze her again, or maybe her brain just short-circuited, because soft lips were pressing into hers, small hands coming to rest on her arms. Her eyes slipped closed automatically, and she returned the kiss cautiously at first, just tilting her head and pushing forward gently. The consent seemed to be what Mel needed, and her palms slid up Jada’s neck to grip her jaw, deepening the kiss with a tiny gasp that made Jada’s toes curl.

It was sweeter than she’d anticipated, Mel’s typical firebrand attitude curling into something soft, but still demanding, teeth sinking into Jada’s bottom lip until it stung. The witch didn’t protest, and the kiss didn’t end, when Jada’s hands landed on the swell of her hips, nor when they slipped further back, squeezing handfuls of soft flesh like she’d wanted to do for _months,_ but had never quite believed would happen. And now that it was here, it was actually happening, she could’ve skipped the rest of the festival to instead explore the plush body draped over lap, thoroughly researching exactly how many different ways her hands and mouth could take Melanie Vera apart.

Mel seemed to agree. Her hips jerked and stayed pressed tightly forward. She was _rubbing_ herself against Jada’s stomach, and the whitelighter-witch knew she must’ve been squeezing Mel’s hips hard enough to leave bruises at the revelation. That, and the fact that just her shirt and Mel’s underwear separated them, hit Jada square between the legs, and she couldn’t help but assist in the movement, flexing and pulling the witch harder against her while her tongue slipped into Mel’s mouth, muffling a low whimper that could’ve come from either of them.

That might’ve been the tipping point, Mel’s head dropping back with a ragged whimper and Jada’s mouth landing on her pulse point, but then they heard Macy’s voice just outside the tent, and the reality of where they were, a whitelighter snoring mere feet away from them, came crashing back into focus.

Mel was sliding off of Jada’s legs just before the slap of Macy’s hand against the tent jerked Harry out of sleep.

“Mel?” called the older sister, tapping her hand on the tent again.

The time witch scampered to the door and ripped the zipper down, revealing Macy’s frowning face. _“What?”_

“We’re gonna be late to Ro James,” the telekinetic replied, glancing between her sister and Jada with narrowing eyes. “Rise and shine, Harry!”

The Brit grumbled at her, but shrugged out of his sleeping bag to a sitting position.

 

* * *

 

“Did I… interrupt something?” asked Macy in a hushed tone when Mel finally stumbled out of the tent.

“No. Harry was right there. Gross.”

“Sure.”

“Okay, fine.” Mel threw her hands up, but glanced back at the tent to make sure its other two inhabitants hadn’t left. “I did the thing.”

“The thing?”

“Yeah, the thing—we woke up cuddling. I would call myself the aggressor.”

“Hmm. Always figured you for a little spoon.” Macy laughed brightly when her sister’s mouth opened to protest, and she quickly went on: “Mel, you’re a whole ass adult. I don’t care if you were making out with Jada, I just wanted to check in. I know I’ve been a little… preoccupied.”

Softening her stance, Mel nodded and started pulling her hair back, the motion and Macy’s earnestly curious grin distracting her enough that she was able to admit, “Yeah, we were making out.”

Macy’s eyes narrowed mischievously, though they also took on a little sparkle of pride. “Was it good?”

_“So_ good. Until you walked in.”

“Big sister. Kinda my job.” The tallest sister slung an arm around her shoulders, squeezing. “Anyway, you want to be the one to get Maggie and Lucy up?”

They both paused, eyes locking on what was obviously the same thought. “Do you… Would they be…?”

Macy blinked slowly, looking at Lucy’s pod as if it might explode. “N-no. They’re straight. Says it on their profiles.”

“It always does, until it doesn’t,” sighed Mel, but she went over to the door anyway, knocking lightly and moving a couple steps back so it could swing open.

Mercifully, Maggie and Lucy were awake and dressed in the pod—that didn’t necessarily mean she and Macy were wrong to wonder—and the two joined them outside after a brief kerfuffle over whether to bring a blanket. They headed out to the show two-by-two, with a rumpled-looking Harry and somewhat nervous Jada bringing up the rear.

In her typical Macy fashion, the Vaughn sister had spent her morning working. She used Google Maps to plot out sightings of the vampire (#FestGremlin) and compiled an Excel sheet of social media profiles for each victim, all of whom were reportedly recovering well; none of the bites had apparently been bad enough to trigger vampirism or death, which was the only reason they could go about their weekend without immediately staking the creature. At least during daylight hours, the risk of another attack—or of finding the vamp wandering around—were low.

Best they could tell after all of that? The vamp wasn’t picky. The most sightings occurred right before and right after a bite, meaning the interloper was somehow walking around hidden the rest of the time, despite the fact that throngs of people seemed to swarm every inch of the festival 24 hours a day. They’d have to split up once sunset hit in order to maximize their chances to catch it.

That was several hours away, however. And Mel was feeling a little keyed up from the heated moments in the tent with Jada, the stickiness between her legs serving as a mildly uncomfortable reminder of how it felt to finally press herself against the whitelighter-witch, and just how close she’d gotten to the very best way to wake up.

_“I wouldn’t be mad if it happened again.”_ Biting her lip against a smile, Mel glanced over her shoulder at the green-eyed woman to find her looking right back, lips quirked in her own knowing grin. Maybe the weekend was looking up again.

 

* * *

 

Mistakes. Niko had made mistakes.

That was her overarching impression as she woke up in her tent, joints and muscles aching from having apparently fallen asleep next to, but not on top of or in, her very soft-looking sleeping bag.

After the Logic show, Stage 1’s big event to close out the first night, she and Trip had ended up at the event-managed overnight bonfire. They’d lit essentially a huge funeral pyre and let the EDM artists go crazy, and Niko could almost still hear the disorientingly deep notes throbbing in her head. That had never really been her scene, but she somehow spent the hours taking enough jello shots to down a small horse. Between the sugar and the alcohol, her liver sought its revenge as the sun warmed her tent to near unbearable.

Water. She needed water. Her hands shook as she fumbled to her Yeti and grabbed a cool plastic bottle, but she had the presence of mind to remember to sip, and not chug it. Her phone brightly informed her it was 10:37 am, and she groaned internally, having been moderately interested in seeing Earl Sweatshirt, but that started at 10:30. After swishing some Listerine, finishing the bottle of water, and checking Instagram and Facebook on her phone, she felt human enough to tug down the zipper door and face the painful bright of the day.

“Rise and shine!” greeted Chloe, lounging on one of their polyester camping chairs. “Trip went to buy more ice.”

Niko was sure she turned a little green when the brunette tried to hand her a PopTart, and without thinking, she yanked her hands back like the industrial pastry was a scorpion. “Sorry. Hungover.”

“Don’t apologize,” laughed Chloe with a cheerful smile. “I should apologize for crashing the bros weekend.”

“I think this is an outcome Trip may have wanted anyway.” Niko returned the grin and fell into the other folding chair with a huff.

“And you? What kind of outcome did _you_ want?”

The taller woman cleared her throat, trying not to squirm under Chloe’s eerily knowing smirk. “Just have a good time. I haven’t really gotten to unwind since classes started.”

“Yeah, I can tell that about you.” Chloe lifted a red Solo cup to her glossy pink lips, and Niko’s stomach lurched. “People make fun, but the ones that study hardest also party hardest. Are you gonna try to find that green-eyed hunk of muscle again?”

Heat rose in her cheeks, and she tried for a casual voice as she replied, “Jada? I mean, if she’s down. Seems cool. I think I gave her my number. Like I said, whatever, as long as we have a good time.”

The brunette, who Niko suddenly remembered she didn’t know all that well, was just staring at her, almost excitedly. “So what you’re saying is, you’re wishing for a good time… which ideally would include guests?”

Niko narrowed her eyes. “I suppose, but I wouldn’t put it like that. Why?”

“No reason. Just nosy.”

The law student was about to press the issue when Trip reappeared with two huge bags of ice in his arms.

“Almost had to fight a dude for these,” he announced as he plopped one down on top of his cooler and handed the other to Niko. “Consume with caution. It’s getting Fyre Fest out here.”

Niko looked away when he leaned down to kiss Chloe. For all the shit lesbians got about moving quickly, those two were practically betrothed at this point, which was an odd pace for her old friend. She dumped the ice into her cooler and stepped back outside, ready to suggest they head to the next show—but Trip and Chloe were nowhere to be found. It hurt more than she wanted to admit, and she considered going back to sleep instead of waiting on them like a clingy child, but then a voice caught her attention as sharply as a dog whistle.

_No fucking way._ She stumbled a step or two forward from her tent, and then her eyes settled on a familiar silhouette. Melanie freakin’ Vera was walking along the row of tents towards hers, arguing with Maggie about something she couldn’t quite make out, not while blood was roaring in her ears, her whole body shivering with a rush of adrenaline. She blinked, slowly _(“maybe I’m still high”)_... but nope, her ex was actually strolling directly towards her, not looking up quite enough to see the oncoming wreck that was Niko Hamada.

At least, not until the sisters were too close to casually turn back. Maggie saw her first, eyes widening to small dinner plates, and she grabbed her sister’s shoulder so hard Mel elbowed her in response, but that was enough for the time witch to finally realize what was happening.

Niko had learned to pick up on when she’d been frozen during her time dating Mel, who in her worst moments had used the power to literally disappear from arguments, and in better moments used it to dramatically reveal gifts or… herself. Tiny jolts of deja vu, a sudden dryness in the eyes were typical signs. The abrupt displacement of the people around them was an obvious alarm bell, but as per usual, the most reliable giveaway was the guilty expression the time witch would make immediately after a freeze. Exactly like she was doing now.

“Did you just—“

“I panicked, I’m sorry.” Mel took a stuttering step forward, and then a half-step back, and Maggie just crossed her arms to pin Niko with an _oh, you again_ expression.

_Christ._ She cleared her throat, avoiding the younger Vera’s sharp eyes. “Uh, well… Hi.”

“Hi,” breathed Mel before she’d even finished her tiny greeting.

“Oh my God,” sighed her sister under her breath.

Hungover or not, Niko had zero idea what to say or do next. Her brain misfired, producing nothing but random fits of feeling as she took in Mel’s longer hair, one of the only signs of the time that had passed since they’d last seen each other. Niko’s eyes traced the familiar curve of her hips in a pair of running shorts and a neon purple tank top.

All the godforsaken hours she’d spent imagining this moment, the grand speeches and impassioned arguments… were for nothing. She fumbled through blankness, completely helpless in the face of two pairs of expectant brown eyes. What she _really_ wanted to do, the only course of action that emerged from the clouds, was pull Mel into her arms and let a kiss do the talking.

And then the moment swept away, because Trip and Chloe reappeared at the tents. He seemed to immediately recognize The Ex, his eyes flickering between them, and for some reason Maggie was looking at Chloe with narrowed eyes, as if they knew each other.

“Hey, ladies,” he greeted, loud and extra cheerful, as he smacked his hand on Niko’s back. “Buddy, you ready to head out?”

It did the trick. Niko suddenly regained the ability for rational thought, and she nodded, though regret bloomed in her stomach. “Yeah, one second.”

While Trip and Chloe set about stowing their belongings in the tent, the law student moved closer to the Veras. “Sorry. You surprised me. Having fun?”

“Yeah,” answered Maggie quickly. “We’re here with friends. Galvin, Macy, Lucy, Harry, and—“

Wherever that had been going, it seemed to snap Mel to her senses as well, because she delivered a sharp smack to her sister’s arm, cutting her off. Niko took note of it, but was too focused on trying not to vomit everything she wanted to say while she had the chance, however inopportune.

“We better get going,” said Mel, not unkindly, but the dismissal still made a cold ache bloom in Niko’s chest. “Good to see you.”

And with that, Mel tugged her sister away, glancing back over her shoulder exactly once before they were out of sight.

“You have _got_ to be kidding me,” Trip groaned from behind her. “That’s it. It’s official. We have to leave the state, permanently.”

“Who was that?” she heard Chloe ask in a shout-whisper.

“Niko’s one true love, apparently.”

Resisting the urge to deck her beloved friend, Niko pivoted to face them with a tight smile. “Let’s just fucking go.”

 

* * *

 

“What happened to giving her a piece of your mind? What happened to, ‘She needs to know how stupid she is’? I’ve heard you say the fucking speech so many times, I almost said it for you.”

Though she was hard pressed to find a lie in the solid 10-minute rant Maggie had going on, Mel couldn’t come up with any excuse except: “She looks really good.”

“Are you—really? Seriously?” Maggie planted her feet and whirled, nearly causing them to collide, and shoved a finger in her sister’s chest. In the half-second it took Mel to realize what she was doing, the younger Vera had already pulled her hand back. Whatever she had heard of Mel’s tornado of thoughts, at least, made her expression soften slightly. “You should’ve let me tell her about Jada, at least.”

“What _about_ Jada?”

“We could see you two during Jhene last night. It was borderline inappropriate for a public space.”

Mel sighed, rolling her shoulders as they continued walking. “Jada is her own person, and so is Niko. That’s kind of the point.”

“Yeah, but she also hasn’t told Niko that she knows who she is, and I think that’s kind of fucked up if Niko’s going to keep hitting on her.”

She was right, of course, in her annoyingly specific Maggie way. The girl knew how to make a nuanced argument, well honed from her lifetime of being the baby sister. Mostly, that whole business was between Jada and Niko, but perhaps more important than Maggie’s point, the way the whitelighter-witch would handle this had the ominous ability to transform _Mel’s_ opinion of the green-eyed woman’s character.

“Just think about it,” added Maggie, resuming their walk back to the group. “And quit pouting.”

“I’m not pouting.”

The empath scoffed. “You’ve got two hot, moderately well adjusted suitors. I don’t see what the issue is.”

“Uh, there’s _two.”_ She didn’t like the way Maggie gave her a sly, sideways look in response to that, and pressed before she could stop herself: “What?”

“Oh, nothing. Just that it’s 2019, that’s all.”

_Christ._ Mel felt like she knew where this was going, but wasn’t going to give Maggie the satisfaction of thinking she’d successfully Inception’d the idea. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t see any reason you have to pick between either of them.”

“I don’t.”

“And I don’t see any reason Jada or Niko has to pick between you and the other one, either.”

_The other one…?_ It took several seconds, but realization set in with a tiny explosion in her mind. “Oh. _Ohhh.”_

“There you go,” teased Maggie, tugging her to the side to avoid running straight into a fratbro’s back. “Breathe through it.”

While trying not to think too hard about why her sister seemed so at peace with the concept, Mel wrestled with the thought. If they were all strangers, all new to each other—that was one thing. But her ex and the woman she’d been getting to know and none too subtly trying to woo for months? Something entirely different.

“Don’t freak out,” warned Maggie as they spotted their sister and friends in the distance. It’s daylight, the vamp has to be hiding, you’re not trying to cuff today, so let’s just enjoy the festival like normal, emotionally unstable college students do. To Noname!”

 

* * *

 

As an only child to older, mostly sedentary adoptive parents, Jada didn’t always understand the blinders and hot buttons that seemed to constantly morph between the Vera-Vaughn sisters. Right now, they looked like a Renaissance painting, standing shoulder to shoulder in front of her. Macy, with Galvin on one side, holding her hip, and Harry standing behind them, looking on longingly. Then Mel, ever the literal middle child, holding up a red Solo cup and dancing in place with her eyes closed.

And both of them? Completely oblivious to their youngest sister, who had one hand wrapped around Lucy’s shoulder and the other on the blonde’s hip as they danced _very much_ together, legs tangled together and eyes keeping contact.

_“I'm just writing my darkest secrets, like wait and just hear me out…”_

Between the Ro James show and the current Noname, Smino, and Saba set, _something_ must have happened—Jada worried that Mel had processed their heated, sleepy kiss from the morning and decided to back off. The time witch had been clipped and reserved with her since, not upset seemingly… More like, she had her walls up. Just the loss of the chance to talk to her, make her laugh and pass the time, was disappointing for reasons she presently chose to ignore, and instead she took the opportunity, with all sisters and friends engaged in the show and each other, to slip away. She picked her way out of the stage area and over to the activities space, where they had chiller lawn games like “corn hole” and horseshoes, as well as more intense obstacle courses for the aggro, Mud Run-type kids.

Laser tag caught her eye. It had “blow off steam in a non-assault way” written all over it. They’d set up a series of obstacles across an area fenced with rope, plenty of things to hide behind for ambush attacks and coordinated presses. The gear included a half-face mask for eye protection and a vest covered in wires and lights, plus of course the “gun” with the red sight and noise effects. She nicknamed herself THECROW at the registration table, and the staff assigned her to the blue team. Her comrades in arms included a trio of women and a couple overly muscular young men, and they traded casual battle plans as they suited up and waited for the signal.

An announcer came over the loudspeaker to give the rules, almost Fight Club style in its commitment to melodrama, and the bleachers around the ground began to swell with raucous onlookers. The hullabaloo was almost enough for Jada to start regretting signing up for this, but then again—she didn’t have anything to prove to these random people. This was just a whitelighter-witch and her laser gun, on a mission. That thought had her skin prickling with electricity, and she hoped it wouldn’t interfere with her sensors.

When the buzzer blew, a set of gates swung open on either side of the field, releasing the teams. Jada’s heart rate ticked up with adrenaline, despite the low stakes, and she couldn’t help but chuckle as the burst of initial action resulted in a vaguely Hunger Games-esque scene, with people running into each other and taking haphazard shots across the neutral middle. Each player could take three shots before they were out of the round, with a ten-second refractory period after a hit where their gun wouldn’t work, but no one could shoot them, either. When they settled into formations that would unfold for the rest of the game, the blue team had lost two players, the red team one, and Jada had two of three lives left.

She considered an area of polygonal foam shapes that made up the only cover between the two sides, clearly made to force a gauntlet type confrontation at some point. Otherwise, they were all just ducking and weaving back and forth in their respective corners, occasionally picking off someone who didn’t move fast enough—or getting picked off themselves.

As blue team exchanged largely useless hand signals to try to figure out what to do next, some of the red team surged forward under cover of their buddies behind. Two more blues were out by the time they resettled, and Jada was just a couple structures away from the gauntlet area. She could hear the opposing team talking quietly and glanced around—one of the women was opposite her, laser drawn up to her chin like an old gunslinger.

The whitelighter-witch was shaking her head, but the blonde woman went charging forward anyway, the announcer shouting _“Leroy Jenkins!”_ as she went, and then chaos broke loose. Blue players were sprinting past Jada into the area, now with just three of the red team left, but they seemed to have missed her. She made her move.

And yeah, maybe she went harder in the paint than a reasonable human might, but she didn’t use any overt powers as she ducked and dove between barriers, taking out red players as she went. From her angle, she eliminated three who were on their last lives, and then it was just her and one last competitor, each with one remaining shot at taking it all.

Over the loudspeaker, the announcer hollered with delight and played the “high noon cowboy duel” music, accented with a whiplash sound at the end.

The last burst of activity had left her a little sweaty, and she paused to catch her breath while trying to keep an eye on her final opponent. Last she’d seen them, they were army-crawling across the grass behind a nearby barrier, maybe one or two rows away. The roar of onlookers, both cheering and heckling, was messing with her concentration, but ultimately, the whitelighter-witch decided on the chaotic route: going out in a blaze of glory, or winning in a flourish of recklessness.

With a deep breath and a test shot of her gun, Jada rounded the corner at full speed towards where the last challenger must’ve been hiding—and then a shadow moved just to her right, and _oh no, shitshit—_ the two collided, each at a dead sprint and looking the wrong way, and the _clack_ of their electronic vests crashing together prompted a long _“ooh”_ from the crowd.

The air rushed out of Jada’s lungs as her back hit the ground, and the red player landed smack on top of her with a grunt. Their vests were probably ruined, and the impact had knocked both of their masks askew.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, I—“ Brown eyes blinked, and then recognition flashed across a familiar face. “Jada?”

“Niko?”

“A-Are you okay?”

“One second.” The whitelighter-witch held up a finger, dropping her head back as if to catch her breath, and then she closed the fingers of her other hand around her laser gun. She jerked it up to press almost directly against a sensor on Niko’s side and pulled the trigger.

“Blue team wins!” shouted the announcer.

Her jaw hanging slack, Niko shifted her weight to the side, their chests sliding painfully together, and Jada had to swallow back a grunt as the taller woman’s head dipped over hers. Between the adrenaline from the match and Niko’s cardio/heated, toned body pressed against hers from shoulder to knee, the whitelighter-witch couldn’t help but steal a glance down at plush lips, and then she was out of breath all over again when she looked up into warm, darkening brown eyes.

“Hamada, you’ve failed us!”

Trip’s voice jolted them both to reality, which suddenly included the loudspeaker playing Hayley Kiyoko’s “Curious”, which in other circumstances might’ve caused her to blast the entire DJ booth with lightning, but between the overwhelming moment and the smile Niko gave her before rolling to her knees—Jada just chuckled and accepted the helping hand to her feet when her vanquished opponent offered it. She would hex the DJ later.

As a reward for winning, the blue team all got P3-branded, glow-in-the-dark frisbees, and Jada herself got to follow Niko Hamada and her friend back out to the food trucks to recharge. The pixie, Chloe, eventually appeared, and Trip went off with her for some drink-related mission or another.

That left Niko and Jada finishing burgers and fries at the picnic table, stealing glances over bites and pint glasses of APAs.

Eventually, Jada broke the silence: “Your ribs okay?”

_“My_ ribs?” coughed Niko. “Your body broke my fall.”

“Eh, I’m no stranger to a scuffle. Gonna have to try harder than that to tap me out.”

“I could always give it another shot.” The law student’s mouth quirked up in a grin, and she rolled up her paper burger wrapper. “You caught me off guard.”

“Mhmm. Me, too.” Before she had a chance to second guess herself, Jada reached down and pulled up the hem of her shirt, showing the purpling bruises just under the elastic of her sports bra. And perhaps also to show her abs, which she had earned through years of diligent gym attendance.

Niko’s eyes dropped to them immediately, and Jada bit her lip to hide a smirk as the law student’s fingers flexed subconsciously, not _quite_ reaching out to touch. “Oh. That is… hmm. Bruise.”

Deciding to take mercy, Jada dropped the fabric. “You can make it up to me later.”

“What’s the punishment?”

“T-B-D.”

Niko rolled her eyes, but kept smiling as they cleaned up their table and hovered by the trash cans awkwardly. The sudden twinge of panic at the thought that Niko would leave, that this interaction would again end in unsure exchanges—and a very important lie of omission would go unresolved. She glanced around the grounds and spotted the area of carnival games, the kind where you spend $40 to win a $20 prize on a rigged system. Perfect.

“Hey, uh… you got anywhere to be?” she asked, going for casual.

“Well, no—not really, I guess. Why? Do you have a suggestion?” The hopeful tilt to Niko’s grin made her heart thud against her ribs, and Jada cleared her throat to clear the feeling away. She just needed to find a way to break the news about Mel. That was it.

By the time Jada realized she’d been hustled out of the first $10 at the ring-toss game, she was having too good of a time to remember the potentially ruinous truth. Niko was… _kind,_ and she was patient, with a little edge of something competitive and sharp. She delivered trash talk with an infectiously confident ease as Jada whiffed it at the game where you try to knock over stacked milk bottles, leaving three on the board when her throws were done.

“It’s _strategy,_ not brute strength, Muscles,” teased Niko as she handed $3 to the booth operator, receiving three smooth white balls in return.

“Show me how it’s done then, Hamada.” Jada stepped closer, hovering just behind where she could safely watch without accidentally getting her teeth knocked out with the wind-up.

Niko tossed the first ball up a couple times, as id testing the weight. “I already took some money off of you. Kinda boring. What’re we betting next?”

While the operator rolled his eyes, Jada considered the woman smirking at her over her shoulder. It was a well-played gamble, low stakes and passive. But “passive” was never a word that had been used to describe Jada Shields, and she narrowed her eyes at the law student. “Winner gets a body shot.”

Niko stuck out a hand, and they shook on it, fingers drawing slowly across each other as their hands parted.

Then the tall woman turned and proceeded to obliterate the six-bottle setup. Each throw wasn’t a show of strength, but control and precision, and that was what Jada tried to focus on instead of the elegant bend of Niko’s neck, or the soft hiss of breath that accompanied each measured pump of her arm.

“You won,” sighed the booth guy in a bored, nasally tone, even as his hand gave a piteous flourish at the prizes on the wall.

“Any preferences?”

Jada scoffed. “Really?”

As she turned, Niko shifted her feet forward ever so slightly, which brought her just into the edge of Jada’s personal space. “What, not used to being the one who didn’t win the trophy?”

“Gonna let me wear your letterman jacket, too?”

Niko’s responding chuckle, haughty but somewhat breathless, was somehow the the most soothing thing she’d heard in what felt like weeks, the sound curling around her mind like a cat settling to sleep. When the operator actually groaned with unhappiness, Jada was _this close_ to blasting him out of the booth, but ignoring his incredulity felt almost as good. She kept her eyes on Niko as she said, “I’ll take the Stitch.”

With her blue plushie tucked under one arm, Jada followed the taller student back across the grounds to a cabana-style mobile bar, its front area packed with people.

She was being a good sport, she told herself, as Niko ordered the necessary pieces, plus an extra shot for Jada. Gotta pay up for a lost bet.

It was the gentlemanly thing to do. Yep.

It just didn’t _feel_ very gentlemanly in any sense of the word as she tilted her head to the side, letting Niko sprinkle salt into the curve of her collarbone, and then when she accepted the lime wedge between her front teeth, pulse heading into overdrive as slender fingers brushed against her lips longer than was strictly necessary.

That seemed like a tiny, faraway thought as she watched Niko take the tequila shot, the long column of her throat bobbing as it went down, and then the taller woman was dipping into her space, hovering near her chin before ducking to lick the salt from her neck. The warm, wet flick nearly had Jada’s eyes closing. When she tipped back up to take the lime wedge, their eyes met, and Jada had to dig her nails into her palm to stop herself from grabbing a handful of soft, dark brown hair and tugging her back in for a real kiss. Instead, she stood there, near dumbfounded, as Niko smirked and languidly pulled the lime from pursed lips.

“I think we’re even now,” murmured the law student, shifting her weight to one hip. Despite her cocky tone, Niko’s cheeks were flushed redder than they’d been before, and her brown eyes were darker than usual as they raked down, and then back up Jada’s body with enough intensity that she almost felt its glide across her skin. A corresponding throb presented between her legs, and this had officially gone much further than she had intended.

The moment Niko’s palm came to rest on her arm, some sort of invitation Jada couldn’t process slipping from her mouth, the whitelighter-witch felt a wave of guilt drown out the jolt of heat from the contact. She caught the wrist in her hand, and as Niko’s face curled with confusion and the beginning of an apology, the biochem major ripped off the proverbial Band-Aid: “I have to tell you something.”

“O… kay?” Niko raised her eyebrows, waiting, looking more curious than suspicious.

It made Jada’s gut clench that much more when she found the words to continue: “I… am a friend of Mel’s. Mel Vera.”

A beat. She could’ve sworn she saw something flicker out in Niko’s suddenly sharp eyes. “You… you what?”

“Mel and I are, uh, not a thing, but, um.. We know each other. Well.” _Oh, God._ Jada could hear herself digging the hole deeper and could do _nothing_ to stop it, like someone had dosed her with truth serum. That might’ve made it better, as if anything could. “That’s not what I meant, we haven’t even had… _Fuck,_ I just wanted you to know, before… anything.”

“You and Mel…” Niko reared back like she’d been struck, stumbling into annoyed strangers until she found her footing, chest heaving as the redness in her cheeks grew angry and bright, spreading down her neck. “No. No, I’m not—nope.”

“Niko, wait.” Jada scrambled after the law student as she started walking away. “Hold up, hold up, let me explain.”

_“Fuck,_ I’m such a—fucking Christ, Jesus…” Niko practically chanted her heresies as they wove through throngs of obliviously happy people.

“That didn’t come out right,” Jada was trying to say, trotting to keep up. “Hold on a sec, I’m not trying to fuck with you. Please, Niko. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

That seemed to break through Niko’s frenzied state, because she pivoted on her heel, voice lowered as she snapped, “Are you a witch? Whitelighter? What?”

Glancing side to side to ensure they didn’t have an audience, Jada relented, “Both.”

“Fascinating. But most importantly, you knew who I was this whole time?”

_Oh no._ Jada instinctively lifted her hands, palms facing out, as she tried to form a sensible response. “Well, yeah, but—“

“Specifically, you _knew_ Mel and I dated?”

The whitelighter-witch inwardly groaned, but there was nothing to be done now, except get it all out in the sunlight. “Yes.”

With a disgusted scoff, Niko started stomping off again, but Jada vaulted over a set of camp chairs to cut her off, reaching out to gently but firmly grab her elbow and redirect her towards the magical friends’ tents.

“What are you—“

“I want to talk about this. Please.”

“Fine. Five minutes.”

“Five minutes,” confirmed Jada, trying not to sound too relieved. “Just… I need a place where I can hear myself think.” Inwardly, however, Jada really wasn’t sure what she was doing—all she knew was that the thought of Niko walking away upset with her, having this idea that she’d been spying or dishonest… it just wouldn’t do.

 

* * *

 

The series of events that brought Niko to Jada’s tent in the late afternoon were hazy. One moment, she’d been enjoying some laser tag with Trip, and the next, Jada “Green Eyes” Shields was underneath her, sweaty and mere inches away, while her pulse thudded between her ears and, abruptly, her legs.

Cut to some food, some games, and then a confession she honestly would have preferred to just never hear, yet somehow _still_ Jada coaxed her to the tents, where she currently stood awkwardly hunched near the door, arms crossed, as the whitelighter-witch stumbled through an explanation.

“...was definitely going to tell you, but I didn’t expect to run into you, you know, literally. It wasn’t like I was spying on you or trying _anything._ I don’t play games like that.”

“Stop. Just stop,” sighed Niko, holding up a hand. “I get it. No ill will, just a whitelighter lie. I’m used to that. It’s… it’s fine.”

“You don’t look fine.” Jada sucked in a breath, eyes searching her face. “You… You’re not looking at me like it’s fine.”

“It doesn’t matter. Why would it matter, even? I’ll just leave you alone, and we don’t even have to—“

“I don’t want that.”

Niko’s jaw clicked shut, and she considered the woman in front of her. Gone was the swaggering, rakish Jada who’d been steadily drawing her in over the last forty-eight hours. In her place stood a regretful and earnestly sorry thing, the emotions written across her furrowed brow and in the downward curl of her shoulders. So Niko simply said: “You don’t want what?”

“I… don’t want you to…” Jada’s greens flickered down to the floor as if literally searching for the words, and then back up. “Look, I’m new on campus and trying to work through some old shit, personally. I don’t usually like people quickly. But I don’t want _you_ to leave. I didn’t tell you this because I wanted to stop. I said it because I _don’t_ want to stop.”

_Oh._ Anger left her chest in a _whoosh_ , even as the situation triggered a crash of speeches from 90s teen romance movies. “ _It started as a prank with my buddies, but now I…”_ She relaxed down to her knees next to the shorter woman, meeting the intense emerald gaze leveled back at her. As much as Niko had marched into the weekend with a “sow your wild oats” attitude, her traitorous mind had been almost wholly preoccupied by thoughts of Mel… and Jada, admittedly. Curiosity. Anticipation. That bright, shining excitement of _wanting_ to know more about someone, of leaving an interaction filled with the thought, _I’d like more of that._

After a brief debate on whether to try to vocalize all… that… Niko decided against it. Instead, she lifted a palm to that sharp jawline and leaned forward, pressing her lips against Jada’s. For a second, the whitelighter didn’t move, and Niko tilted her head back to face impending embarrassment of rejection, but then Jada surged forward, and every thought evaporated into smoke. Her focus narrowed to the sound of the shorter woman gasping against her lips, the smell of the oils in her hair and heady sweat from the day.

And when Jada’s tongue swiped along her bottom lip, asking the question in no uncertain terms, Niko relented again, parting her lips and tasting tequila and lime as the soft muscle licked into her mouth for the first time. The feel of it, and the way her brain immediately ran with what that tongue might feel like in other places, had a moan slipping out of her throat before she could swallow it back down.

The noise seemed to add a new layer to the moment, and with a sharp intake of breath, Jada jerked her head back as if startled. Her hands remained firmly twisted in the front of Niko’s tank, green eyes fixed on her lips.

“This, um…” Jada’s silver labret piercing bobbed distractingly as she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, and then let go with a huff. “This is some stupid shit.”

Niko laughed, the sound leaving her in a rush, and loosened the tight grip she’d had on Jada’s shoulders. “Agreed.”

They came crashing back together anyway, Niko pressing Jada farther into the tent with a hand to her impressively muscular chest as she swallowed the shorter woman’s groan. Jada allowed herself to be backed up to the sleeping bags heaped on one side, and then strong hands gripped Niko’s hips and squeezed, reversing their positions, and she relaxed, letting Jada guide them down onto the soft pile and settle between her thighs.

The kiss was rough and hot, harder than she was used to, shooting bubbles of pleasure through her belly to gather at the base of her spine. Jada’s teeth left her bottom lip aching when she ducked her head to lick and nip behind Niko’s ear, and the alternating soft, warm sensations with spikes of almost-pain were enough to have Niko bucking up into the strong body pressing her into the sleeping bags. Recognizing the force of Jada’s resistance against her chest and hips made her pulse spike, and all the blood in her veins was rushing to the apex of her legs, so sudden it was almost painful—a sharp, throbbing ache.

While her tongue worked its way down Niko’s neck, Jada’s iron hands grasped at her wrists, keeping them pinned somewhat awkwardly between their chests, and her hips were slightly bucking down against her, occasionally rubbing the thick button fly of Jada‘s shorts _just right_ against her, until she was gasping and ignoring that she might’ve otherwise been embarrassed to be desperately meeting each subtle thrust with her own.

When the whitelighter-witch looked up from sucking a faint mark into Niko’s neck, her emerald pupils had been replaced with sparks of bluish electricity. And _fuck_ if the evidence of Jada’s wavering control didn’t have her practically writhing under her, blindly searching for more friction, more pressure, _any_ source for _more._ The fact that she could barely move dragged a whimper from her lips.

“You still good with this?” Jada’s voice rasped from somewhere near her cheek, and the question was almost laughable as Niko rubbed herself shamelessly against Jada’s front, but the check-in was appreciated nonetheless.

“Good. Definitely good.” Niko wrapped a hand around the back of Jada’s neck, careful not to pull at her braids, but squeezed until that hot mouth found its way back to her skin. When Jada’s thigh slipped between her legs with purpose, she almost lost her resolve, but managed to choke out her final rational thought: “But I’m not having sex with you right now. I’m still kinda mad.”

“Okay.” Jada’s hand slipped under her tank top, rough fingers sliding slowly and firmly across the skin, as if to savor the feeling before the end. “Okay. That’s fair.”

Trying and failing not to get too lost in the little thrill from the panting breathlessness of Jada’s voice, Niko lifted her hips, grinding against the offered, muscular thigh. The friction only highlighted the slickness gathering in her underwear, threatening to soak into her shorts, and she spared a thought to the discomfort that would come later, until she had time to change. To banish the wayward worry, Niko dragged Jada up into a kiss again, slower this time, the pause in intensity giving her time to clear some of the haze from her brain. _Complicated. This is complicated. Slow._

Unfortunately, slower didn’t equate to _less hot_ with Jada, who switched gears effortlessly, lifting her weight off of Niko’s hips, brushing a hand across her cheeks, chin, and lips between kisses, pushing wayward strands of hair behind her ears. The fervor of the moment prior melted into a sweet and longing thing, expressing _something_ that calmed her rising nerves about what might happen when this came to an end. She took her time with her own newly freed hands, dragging blunt nails across a firm back that ripped deliciously under her touch, even through Jada’s shirt.

Niko was _just_ about to slide the shorter woman off of her _(like,_ two _more seconds)_ when the universe decided to intervene, and of course, it was in truly dramatic fashion.

A sharp increase in daylight was the only warning they got before Maggie’s voice snapped through the air: _“What the_ **_actual_ ** _fuck?”_

With a pained gasp, Jada _teleported_ to the opposite side of the tent, the bolt of lightning momentarily blinding Niko in the small space… and she kind of wished her eyesight just never come back, or maybe that the strike would’ve opened a chasm in the ground to swallow her whole.

Standing in the entryway to the tent: Maggie, Lucy, _and_ Harry. The last looked almost translucent with how pale he’d become. Lucy had one hand over her mouth, but her eyes were glowing with a sort of TMZ-esque glee, like this could only be better if livestreamed to millions.

And the youngest Vera? Maggie looked _pissed._ “Please tell me one of you is a glamour.”

“Is that… would that make it _better?”_ Jada coughed when Maggie’s death glare turned to her.

“You two were really about to fuck on Mel’s sleeping bag?”

Niko didn’t feel like it would be helpful to insist, however truthfully, that they _hadn’t_ been about to fuck. With kiss-swollen, reddened lips and her braids askew, Jada objectively looked debauched. She was sure she was in a similar state. “It… it just happened.”

“What, you fell on each other’s faces?”

Lucy snickered, and Maggie’s eye twitched as the blonde whispered, “They lesbianing.”

“Just, _we_ haven’t even talked about…” Niko gestured between herself and Jada, who was straightening her clothes and avoiding looking at any of them. “Can you give us like… twelve hours—to _talk,_ like adults!” She added the last quickly, seeing a red haze of furious misunderstanding about to overtake Maggie’s face.

“Fine. Then let me get _my_ talking out of the way right now.” Maggie crossed her arms. Her voice had lowered to a growl. “I don’t know what fucked up love shape this makes, but you need to tell Mel, or I will. She… You both know how much she cares about you. Both of you morons.”

Jada and Niko nodded glumly.

“You have until Kehlani. Then, it is my sworn duty as a sister to tell her.” And with that, Maggie dropped the flap to the tent.

They sat silently in the warm darkness for a few minutes. Later, Niko wouldn’t really be able to describe her panicked spiral of thoughts, amplified by being caught by Maggie of all people, someone who she quietly considered the little sister she never had. The general messages careened between _You’re a piece of shit, Hamada_ and _What if this means I don’t really know what I want?_

Eventually, a cautious hand touched her shoulder, and she looked up into inscrutable green eyes. “We should let this sink in for a bit.”

Niko nodded, trying to smile, but mostly just feeling… shame. She went to apologize, but then Jada leaned in to kiss her again, just a quick brush of the lips, and yet enough of a surprise that the bad thoughts abated a bit. Between the cracks of her panic, the small act of affection settled her stomach, replacing the borderline nausea with something warm and fluttering. All she managed to get out was, “Yeah, just… I think I actually like you.”

“I actually like you, too,” chuckled the whitelighter-witch as she rolled to her feet. “Let’s get out of here before Maggie comes back and curses our family lines.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, I definitely could have played this as a straight up trio hookup fic, but then I wouldn't be me, out here making my life more difficult than it maybe needs to be, now would I?
> 
> Also just to be clear, in this house we believe in OT3 as a healthy functioning poly relationship.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me the wildest things that you've seen at music festival or let me know how much you hate this on tumblr [@trashyeggroll](https://trashyeggroll.tumblr.com/)


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